Padrona
by miikka-xx
Summary: Mistress. The Hyuuga are going to die. They will be the ones to kill them. NejiHina. Future fic.


**miikka-xx: **NejiHina owns my soul. Well, actually, SasuHinaNeji owns it, but this comes in close secon-- third. SasuHina comes in second, actually. Love is fickle.

**Title: **Padrona  
**Rating:** T  
**Words:** 2,264 And it was originally going to be a drabble too. -.-"  
**Summary:** The Hyuuga are going to die. They will be the ones to kill them. [Mistress] [She is his lord and master and he will do anything for her.] [NejiHina. future fic.]  
**Characters: **Neji, Hinata, Hanabi, Hiashi and the Hyuuga. Oh, and some irrelevant OCs.  
**Pairings: **NejiHina  
**Disclaimer: **If Naruto was mine, we would know Hinata and Neji's moms. And then, maybe, Hyuugacest as a result. ;)  
**Warning: **Done while medicated. Hyuugacest. Future fic. Description of death.

-x-

_"After your death you will be what you were before your birth." -Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)_

-x-

Neji watches Hinata in the hospital room.

She is faintly breathing. The cardiograph is near and beeping loudly. Her face is soft and bruised, her body covered in goosebumps and dressed sparsely. She is cold; her breath comes in huffs and a sheen of sweat covers her forehead.

Neji can't trust himself to pull the blanket over her.

Outside, the moon is faint but glimmering brightly. Just enough light is cast through the glass to light up her unnatural pallor. It is a Hyuuga trait and Hinata wears it well.

Neji wonders if he should just finish the job right now. No one knows he is in here. He is forbidden to visit her in this hospital. They know of his power, the way every poke and prod of his fingers brought her closer to oblivion only a few hours ago. His hands twitch, he could end it all right here, right now and no one would know better. He has sneaked through the cold, sterile hallways to this room for this reason. The set-up is almost beautiful, in his eyes.

His lady laying there, still and stiff, and it is Death that visits her bedside.

He is reaching over, his fingers already curled in anticipation when he stops. He forces his body to move forward but it refuses. As if killing his mistress was against his instincts. He collapses back into his seat by her bed and watches the girl.

And suddenly, Neji knows he is going to serve this girl for the rest of his life.

For she is strong, so strong, that even in her sleep, she can bring death to her bedside and make him leave at moonset.

Neji glances out the window. The moon is sinking. He is gone.

-x-

Six years later, she sits, straight-backed, with her eyes facing forward, in the room of the Council of Elders.

Her father sits beside her and offers her hand in marriage to strengthen the power of the Hyuuga. He is behind the screen door, a bit aways from the wall they make her face. He discreetly activates his Byakugan and watches her face intently.

She is painted in rouge and dark lines that extend from her eyelashes. Her hair is pulled up and many pretty ornaments hang down, framing the dark locks and pale skin. She is like a Hyuuga doll and Neji feels Death shift in his stomach, an urge to kill. His mistress looks at her father almost expectantly and then it happens.

Her father hands her a kunai. Without pause, she slides it accross the pad of her thumb slowly, as if relishing in the cool metal cutting open her pale, white skin. Neji later wonders if she had entertained thoughts of assassination killing someone in the room with that same kunai.

Yet, she does not flinch but her eyes glitter more so than usual. She blinks, her eyelashes lingering before parting, damp. The Council of Elders shift and murmur. Hiashi is impassive as ever. Hanabi sits on his other side, unofficial heiress to the Hyuuga now. She is also indifferent.

Neji retracts his vision, managing to catch a last glimpse of her bloodied thumb slide over a contract.

-x-

The Hyuuga thrive.

Hinata's marriage to the heir of a prominent ninja clan residing in Thunder Country is successful.

The dowry is plentiful but the rewards even more. The clans eagerly swap techniques and missions, over the lowered heads of their heirs. They have been married for a month, and the family still resides in the House of Hyuuga. It is traditional that they have no union until they have prepared for Hinata's move into the House of Raikou.

The husband is the master of Lightning techniqus and a prodigy in his country. Neji spars with him many times yet never manages to deem him worthy. He almost glides into the husband's room one night; Lord of Death in the Hyuuga house, he deems himself.

But his mistress is a powerful one and he visits her that same night. She sits in front of her vanity mirror, brushing her hair at four in the morning, waiting for him. He bows his head and stands behind her, watching her reflection.

"Neji-niisan," she smiles slightly. Her eyes are twinkling. Neji feels Death curl in his stomach restlessly, wanting his fingers to slide over the cool metal of his senbon as he aims...

"I am a kunoichi," she murmurs, her brush sliding unhindered through the hair. Neji nods his head once in acknowledgement. Hinata's smile widens.

"This is a worthy sacrifice," she says, as if reassuring herself.

His mistress stands and turns. He towers over her but she feels overwhelming. Especially the feel of her arms when they curl around his torso and her forehead that rests against his chest. His heart is beating fast and his mistress knows.

"Arigatou, Neji-niisan."

_thankyouforlistening, thankyouforbeinghere, thankyouforacceptinghim, thankyoufornotkillinghim--_

He leans down, his mouth bumping lightly against the shell of her ear but she does not tense.

"Gomen, Hinata-sama."

-x-

Three months later, the Hyuuga die.

Neji disappears in the night and the prodigy of Thunder Country is found dead.

He is lying in his bed, senbon through the neck. They ransack the manors, the servants and ninjas until no evidence or perpetrator is found. Hinata stays in her room, sitting in front of her vanity mirror, brushing her hair.

They have asked her many questions but it is her father that comes to her rescue, saying that she is not that good of a ninja to assassinate her husband. Her skills and feelings would not permit her to do such a thing. The two Hyuuga say nothing of Neji, remaining silent in the knowledge that it is probably him. Hanabi visits her one night and offers her the position of heiress one more time.

Hinata watches her sister in the moonlight as the girl sits on her bed, staring at the crescent moon.

"It is rightfully yours, you know," Hanabi murmurs. Hinata continues sliding the brush down her hair.

"I am a widow, I have no rights to take what is yours when everything of mine has been taken away."

"So you would rather be the widow of Thunder Country than the ruler of Fire Country?" asks Hanabi. Her eyes are cold. Hinata remains silent.

Hanabi leaves before the moon has a chance to disappear behind the horizon.

-x-

It has been one month after the incident.

The Hyuuga are dead.

Hiashi passes away with an unfinished will, Hanabi abandons her role as the heiress of Hyuuga and Hinata remains the widow of Thunder Country. Neji returns at the end of the month from his long-term mission assigned by the new Hokage, Rokudaime Naruto.

It was proven that he had been gone a few hours before the death by Hokage mission scrolls. The clans had poured over these documents for hours until they had been proven wrong, Neji did not kill the husband due to the time constraints of his mission. He soon returns to the House of Hyuuga. There are still Hyuuga there, but without ruler and merely ninjas using the rooms as places to stay before another mission arises.

In Thunder Country, it is not different. Hinata lingers in the hallways of polished metal, a pretty ornament on the throne of the House of Raikou. The Council never come to her, making decisions and using her as their pretty, painted doll. And, as if the past repeats itself, the House soon warms up to her, to this quaint, quiet yet imposing mistress. They ignore her white eyes in favor of her decorated kimonos. She rules her House with a pale, white hand beneath the eye of the Council.

-x-

The Rokudaime skims his eyes over the mission documents and is surprised that it is the Hyuuga that are the most proficient hunters and killers. They are ruthless and angry and will kill for what they want. They are restless and bloodthirsty, needing a commander, something to calm them. Naruto knows what it is but does nothing. He knows they will get it themselves. It is their methods of obtaining it that Naruto grows ever fearful of.

The Hyuuga nins do not stay for long. They linger at the manor for only a few days at a time before snagging another mission and destroying everything in their path. The servants stay and clean the bloodstains that appear every night off the floorboards. It is eternally cold and dim-lighted and no one outside the family brings themselves near this abandoned house.

Konoha's assassination rates are off the charts. The Hyuuga shift restlessly.

-x-

Hanabi visits one last time and offers to bring Hinata back to Konoha. Hinata refuses and hopes she will stay until moonset. She does not.

-x-

His mistress is powerful. His mistress is strong. His mistress rules over him with a pale, white hand and clutches his heart even if she stays in another country. Neji feels Death clawing in his core, roaring and thunderous in its need.

The Hyuuga nins sense Death in him and follow. They know he will bring what they want.

Neji takes a leave and prepares for Thunder Country.

The Hyuuga nins follow.

Death is in the air.

-x-

They are ruthless and kill everyone in their way.

Bodies litter the ground and blood pools everywhere. Neji opens the door to where they hold his mistress with a feeling that she is waiting for him. It is true. Hinata sits before her vanity mirror, brushing her hair at four in the morning and smiling softly.

"You came," she says. Neji is not fooled. He knows that she is aware of the bloodstained hallways outside of this prison. Inside, Death is calm and satiated at the sight of her.

"Come," he says. It is an invitation. He would never order his mistress. She is dressed in a stark white kimono with a black obi tied around her waist. Her hair hangs down her back and she has never looked so beautiful. Neji strides and stands behind her, nostalgia flooding his senses. Something prickles his neck and he knows it's the faintest rays of sunrise burning into him.

"This is what we could have been, Neji-niisan," she says, and Neji looks at their reflection. He nods, the image is too dark to see the blood and sins all over him. The reflection is a dream life. Of what Hyuuga could have been, what Hyuuga could have seen. She stands and turns and her eyes take in everything he is.

This is the reality.

This is what they are.

-x-

When Hinata glides through the red-painted hallways of the House of Raikou, she will never look more beautiful that she does now, in the presence of Death.

The Hyuuga nins bow low and follow behind her, behind Neji. She watches a man gurgle and spit blood on the floor, leaning and dying against the wall. Her eyes are sympathetic but she merely walks past him. It is Neji, not Death, that swiftly cuts open his jugular and lets the man's head fall in an almost respectful bow if it wasn't for the blood running down his chest.

Hinata does not glance back at his actions and merely walks, straight-backed, through the dead House of Raikou.

-x-

They return to Konoha reeking of blood.

The Hyuuga nins breathe and clean themselves up. Neji bathes in cool water, scrubbing each dried bloodstain away until his skin became raw.

Hinata prepares her clothes for her ascension to the Head of Hyuuga, mistress to all.

Two days later, Hanabi returns from her mission and they make it official. Hinata is now the Head, Neji the Captain of her Guard and Hanabi, the silent assassin of the Hyuuga.

-x-

Rokudaime Naruto is shocked at the peaceful House of Hyuuga and the slow fall of the assassination rates of Konoha. He is then subjected to the news of slaughter of the House of Raikou by an unknown force as no survivor was left. He knows it is the Hyuuga nins but says nothing.

Konoha is calm. The House of Hyuuga peaceful.

This is worth his silence.

-x-

She is sitting in front of her vanity mirror, brushing her hair at four in the morning.

Neji is standing behind her.

"Hanabi killed him," he says.

"I know," she replies.

The reflection they see now is the exact same as reality. Neji feels Death in his core once again and is not surprised. It makes his hands lay on her bare shoulders, makes his fingers slide forward and wrap around her pale, white throat. Makes the pads of his thumb to rest on either side of her jugular, feeling her calm pulse. He could finish her right now.

"Do as you wish," she tells him.

Neji almost screams at her when his fingers involuntarily tighten. Death pumps in his veins, trying its hardest to finish her, send her to oblivion. His reason if living had always been this.

Sunrise pierces through her window, illuminating her. Her eyes are half-open and calm as ever. She stares at his reflection expectantly.

"You once told me, you were the Lord of Death in the Hyuuga House," she remarks softly.

Neji's throat tightens and he wrestles his hands away from her neck.

"But you," he gasps, "You..."

She is the Mistress of the Lord of Death.

-x-

The Hyuuga are reborn.

-x-

**A/N: **If it isn't obvious, I was on drugs since I was sick. And this came to me one day, after pondering where the effin' HELL Kishimoto was going to take Naruto. I adore NejiHina and the twisted fics where Hinata or Neji go Itachi-style and kill everyone. 'Cept each other, of course. And the murder of the random husband OC is kind of left open. I planned it to be Neji but then thought Hanabi would be cooler. And that Hanabi and Neji plotted it so it was blamed on Neji but NOOO, Hanabi could never do that to her flesh and blood. So she waited until he was gone to kill this guy. I guess prodigies of Thunder Country got nothing on prodigies of Fire Country.

Hope you enjoyed. Reviews are craved. I mean, appreciated. Right. I am _so not_ a review whore. [shot]


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